Manchester United open TV fixtures for new season; Liverpool and Arsenal also feature

Manchester United’s opening fixture against Swansea City has been confirmed as the first television match of the new season, with BT Sport landing the broadcasting rights.

The game will kick off at 12:45pm as the new campaign gets underway on Saturday 16th August, with BT’s rivals Sky Sports also boasting big fixtures that weekend.

Sky will show Saturday's late kickoff between Arsenal and Crystal Palace, as well as Liverpool’s opening game against Southampton and champions Manchester City’s visit to Newcastle United on Sunday.

The fixture between newly-promoted Burnley and Chelsea will also see the return of the popular Monday Night Football the following day, with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher resuming their roles as the programme's main pundits.

BT Sport, who are celebrating their one-year anniversary both as a station and as broadcasters of the Premier League, are yet to announce their picks for the first half of the new season, while Sky are set to dominate the early schedules for the return of the world’s most watched domestic league.

August will see last season’s top-four shown nine times in 15 days to mark the start of another campaign, while Louis van Gaal’s new era at United will see the Red Devils on Sky seven times before the end of October.

Sky continue to dominate the British market for Premier League broadcasting, with rights to 116 live games over the course of the year.

BT will once again show 38 live matches, with the majority of them being early Saturday kickoffs. The station will also be allowed 18 top picks, ensuring that they do not fall too far behind their broadcasting rivals in terms of fixture relevance.

Dan Connor

Dan is a sports journalism undergraduate from Barry, South Wales. He is a club journalist at West Bromwich Albion and a weekly writer for The Independent’s sport section. Previous work for BBC Sport, BBC Radio and Manchester United has seen Dan cover a range of sport such as rugby union, tennis and Formula One. His expertise lies in Welsh football, in particular with Cardiff and Swansea City.